Head out to New West when Vancouver starts to get boring

The Esplanade in New West, B.C. gets you close to the river.

Photograph by: Tourism New Westminster
, Canada.com

Travellers who are bored with Manhattan look for new thrills in New York’s City’s outer boroughs. If you’re getting bored with Vancouver, then head out to that city’s suburbs to see some new sights.

It may be a bit of hyperbole, but the folks in New Westminster like to think of their town as Vancouver’s Brooklyn, a once proud city that went through hard times, but is rebuilding itself with a cooler image.

The first step to reboot a neighbourhood starts with the name. New Westminster was fine when Queen Victoria was on the throne, but these days, everyone calls it New West.

Vancouver’s expensive real estate market is helping fuel growth in New West. Priced out of the market, plenty of young people are heading further afield for more affordable places to live and plant roots. New West is benefitting from that movement and some of the city’s downtown trendsetters are following their customers out to where they live.

One of them is chef Angus An. This culinary dynamo who is the owner of Maenam, arguably Vancouver’s finest Thai restaurant, has just opened a new eatery in the River Market at Westminster Quay. It’s a casual Thai restaurant named Longtail, after a type of boat that is common in Thailand.

Chef An said his inspiration was the night markets in Thailand. He thought Vancouver lacked “gourmet” fast food so he thought quality Thai food would fill that niche.

“People want to eat well. They want to east fast, but they don’t want to eat junk,” he told me.

Longtail is just one of several interesting restaurants in the River Market. Neighbouring Re-Up BBQ is another. It’s a name known to connoisseurs of Vancouver’s downtown food carts. They serve delicious barbecue platters and sandwiches.

Step out from the River Market and you’ll find yourself on the the Waterfront Esplanade, a kilometre-long boardwalk that lines the Fraser River. It’s the ideal spot to soak up the atmosphere of New West and the river that is so important to the city’s past and present.

The river remains the beating heart of New West. You can walk or cycle the entire length of the esplanade and watch the tugboats and barges scurry past or simply watch the water flow. At the end of the boardwalk, you can explore newly-opened Westminster Pier Park. It’s an innovative green space that is half on land, half on water and a great place to relax.

For a closer look at the city’s river history, a stop at the Samson V museum along the boardwalk is in order. It is housed in the last steam-powered sternwheeler to operate in Canada.

Another entrepreneur who is bringing some cool to New West is Frank Gregus. He’s one of the co-owners of Pacific Breeze Winery which bills itself as Canada’s first urban garage winery.

Rather than be grape growers, they thought they would create wine using the best grapes they could buy from the open market.

“If mother nature decides to be kind it will decide whether you have a good year or not,” said Gregus. Selecting which grapes they buy when it’s time to bottle a new batch means they don’t have to rely on Mother Nature’s whims to control the quality of their product. Their signature wine brands are Killer Cab and Big Red, which you can buy at the winery which is located in an unremarkable industrial park not far from the river front.

There are a handful of accommodation options in New West, but there is only one full-service hotel and that is The Inn on The Quay. It is conveniently located on the Riverfront Esplanade and neighbours the River Market.

This building’s tiered construction certainly stands out as it juts out over the esplanade into the river and once you see it, you won’t be surprised to learn that its design was inspired by cruise ships.

The hotel is 25-years-old, but recent renovations have brought it completely up to date and each of its 126 rooms feature large windows that give you gorgeous views of the river and private balconies that give you more room to breathe.

Amenities like free wi-fi, weekly wine tastings, plush bathrobes and spa-like baths only add to the enjoyment of your stay. If the food at the neighbouring River Market wasn’t enough for you, the hotel’s attached Boathouse Restaurant has an expansive menu.

It’s also conveniently located a few blocks from the SkyTrain station so you can travel to downtown Vancouver in under half an hour.

New Westminster may not have as many hipsters per square kilometre as Brooklyn, but it’s working hard at transforming itself into a cool place to live and to visit.

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